Via Interfax:
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia is worried that, as he sees it, many people in the Middle East perceive the events that have happened there of late as a conflict between the Christians and the Muslims.
"It is absolutely unacceptable if Europe is perceived as an aggressor in the Arab world's eyes. This must be prevented by any means, because, although Europe today is, excuse me, godless and secular and does not associate itself too much with Christianity, the deeply religious Islamic population still sees Europe as Christians," Patriarch Kirill said in an interview with Moldovan and Romanian TV channels and the Russian news TV channel Rossiya-24 in Chisinau.
Therefore, "at the market and street level, many see Europe's engagement in the problems of the Arab world - not only political but also military - as some combat between Christians and Muslims," he said.
It is important to prevent "an inter-religious and inter-civilizational factor, because this all can backfire very painfully in the globalizing world, and not only in the Middle East, but also in European counties," he said.
(source)
